The present invention relates to a hearing aid for placement in an ear comprising a carrier means, an enclosure, a microphone, a battery, an amplifier and a speaker, the carrier means carrying the battery and said enclosure having a microphone entrance and surrounding the microphone, the battery and the speaker and being connected to the carrier means.
Such a hearing aid is known from the European patent application 0 517 322 A2. This known hearing aid which is to be placed in the ear, has a carrier means, also called faceplate, which carries the electronics of the hearing aid including the speaker. This carrier means, when the hearing aid is placed in the ear, is situated on the outside of the hearing aid which is directed to the outside of the ear, and when placed in the ear is the part of the hearing aid having the largest diameter. The carrier means namely first of all is important for the fixation of the battery drawer. Because the battery is the largest part, the hearing aid usually has the largest diameter at the location of the carrier means. Although such a hearing aid generally performs well, problems may arise when the hearing aid can be produced increasingly smaller and therefore can be placed deeper, which problems as appeared after lengthy examinations are the result of the fact that such a hearing aid placed thus deep in the ear cannot record the movements of the auditory passage well. When one goes from the outside to the inside of the ear, then the first part of this auditory passage is surrounded by so-called jaw heads. The auditory passage itself consists of elastic cartilage. The jaw heads change into scull bone which is rigid. The auditory passage finally ends near the eardrum. The known hearing aid of the kind which is placed deep in the auditory passage, appears to be placed thus in the auditory passage that the carrier means is placed at the location of the jaw heads. These jaw heads move together with the jaws, as a result of which mainly during chewing movements the pressure on the hearing aid is constantly changed, which causes an unpleasant feeling with the wearer of a hearing aid. Furthermore during these chewing movements, acoustic leakage, the so-called whistling, may occur.
Among others it is an objective of the present invention to provide a hearing aid for placement in an ear, with which the above-mentioned problems are reduced or even entirely removed.
For that purpose a hearing aid of the kind mentioned above is according to the invention characterized in that, the enclosure has a first and a second end, the first end being directed to the outside and the second end being directed into the ear when placed in the ear, in that the carrier means is situated between the first and the second end and that the enclosure of the carrier means decreases in diameter towards the first end. In this way the elastic forces in the auditory passage may press down the device inwardly, the carrier means having the largest diameter of the hearing aid when placed in the ear, being placed more to the centre of the device, because of which the elastic forces can be better used and contact with the moving jaw heads is prevented. This improves the wearing comfort of the hearing aid and reduces the whistling or even removes it entirely. Contrary to the up until now common idea that a hearing aid has to close off the auditory passage wherever possible and therefore over its entire length for an optimum result, this is not the case with a hearing aid according to the present invention. With less contacting surface a good closing off is still obtained.
Although the carrier means may consist of one part, it has manufacturing and user technical advantage when the carrier means contain a first and a separate second carrier element, which are placed adjacent to one another and are connected carrier elements, the first carrier element being situated closer to the first end and the second carrier element being situated closer to the second end.
Here at least one of the carrier elements can be designed as a carrier plate or at least one of the carrier elements can be designed as a carrier ring which can be closed or not, the first and the second carrier element being made of different materials.
Preferably the enclosure comprises a first enclosure part and a second enclosure part, the first enclosure part being connected to the first carrier element and the second enclosure part being connected to the second carrier element. In this way the user-friendliness of the hearing aid can be enhanced, and the first enclosure part and the second enclosure part can be manufactured of different materials to adjust the hearing aid better to the various characteristics of the auditory passage.
Preferably the first and outer enclosure part is manufactured of hard material and the second enclosure part is manufactured of soft material.
If the speaker is placed next to the battery, when seen in a direction from the first to the second end, an extremely short length of the hearing aid is obtained, because of which the second end of the enclosure can be placed closer to the eardrum, which entails significant advantages.
According to another aspect of the invention an ear piece is provided for placement in an ear comprising a carrier means and an enclosure, in which the enclosure has an opening for receiving a sound hose and is connected to the carrier means, characterized in that, the enclosure has a first and a second end, the first end being directed to the outside and the second end being directed into the ear when placed in the ear, in that the carrier means is situated between the first and the second end and that the enclosure of the carrier means decreases in diameter towards the first end. Such an ear piece can be used in combination with a hearing aid part which is to be placed behind the auricle, also called ear drop. An ear piece normally does not contain a speaker, although it is possible all the same, and is connected to the ear drop via the sound hose. The speaker can therefore also be placed in that part of the hearing aid and the parts are connected by the sound hose.
According to a further aspect of the present application an aid is provided for inserting a hearing aid (or ear piece) according to the invention into the ear. Such an aid is advantageous as the hearing aid and the ear piece according to the invention can be inserted deeper into the auditory passage than the known devices.
According to a further aspect of the invention a device is provided for making a cast of the deepest part of the auditory passage, which device is provided with:
a supply hose for supplying a casting material to the deepest part of the auditory passage from outside of the ear, which supply hose is provided with a supply end for casting material and a discharge end for discharging casting material to the deepest part of the auditory passage;
a truncated conical ring of soft elastic material, which ring is arranged around the discharge end of the supply hose;
a foil placed over the ring; and
a cord placed over the foil which cord is provided with a thickening for pressing the foil in the discharge end of the supply hose. With this device it is possible to insert casting material very close to the eardrum in the auditory passage without damaging the eardrum or the sensitive parts of the auditory passage surrounding it.